Third time lucky?
Peter Mandelson's return is going to start a frantic competition among investigative journalists to see who can break the story that will force him to resign from the Cabinet for the third time. The first honour, you will recall, went to David Hencke and others at The Guardian, for uncovering the information in December 1998 that Mandelson had secretly borrowed £370,000 from his fellow minister, Geoffrey Robinson, who was under investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry, whose Secretary of State was Peter Mandelson.
There was some dispute, however, as to who actually got there first.
Paul Routledge, then of The Daily Mirror, had included the story in his biography of Peter Mandelson, a proof copy of which had been sent to the House of Commons and turned up in the wrong office. Routledge was convinced that someone stole his scoop. The Guardian said it came to them independently. One possibility is that someone who knew what was in the Routledge book decided to tip off The Guardian. What we don't know is who told Routledge, but every Friday he used to meet up with Gordon Brown's spin doctor Charlie Whelan. Whelan, who shared all of his master's likes and dislikes, loathed Mandelson. He had to resign very soon after Mandelson.
There is no dispute about who brought down the once disgraced Cabinet Minister the second time around. It was Anthony Barnett, investigative journalist for the Observer, who revealed that Peter Mandelson appeared to have tried to help a wealthy Indian obtain British citizenship in return for a donation to that troubled government project, the Millennium Dome, which was Mandelson's ministerial responsibility. One should add though that it was not just the story itself, but Mandelson's inability to give a consistent explanation, that did for him.
Of course it is possible that in his third spell as a Cabinet minister, twice disgraced, twice rehabilitated, Mandelson will be so transparently scrupulous and straightforward in all his dealings that there will be nothing for an investigative journalist to expose - just like Newcastle UFC is going to avoid relegation this year.
Well, if his time as an "EU Commissioner" is anything to go by, then he's going to be as ineffective as he always was...
I wrote to him many times on several different issues during his term as an EU Commissioner and never received a single reply.
What is it about this guy that makes his colleagues want to keep employing him? I really can't see it...
Posted by: Mike | Friday, 03 October 2008 at 04:31 PM
Who will be the first to bring down Mandy? We'll have to wait our turn in the queue.
It's third time lucky for the Prince of Darkness and third time unlucky for the rest of us.
Mandy moving back certainly came as a shock. But every cloud has a silver lining - at least he won't be able to hide away in Brussels.
Is this a case of keeping your friend close and your enemies even closer?
The most polite words I could think to use to describe Mandy is a bad egg but I reckon it fits.
http://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/brown-keeps-his-enemies-close-as-mandy.html
Posted by: the orange party | Friday, 03 October 2008 at 04:47 PM
""What is it about this guy that makes his colleagues want to keep employing him? I really can't see it...""
What "black information" has he got that can make people keep re-employing him, with an elevation to the house of lords?
Posted by: flipped | Friday, 03 October 2008 at 06:02 PM
Third time lucky indeed. For who? Certainly not for us. "three strikes and you are out" would be better, but what infamy do we have to wait for to establish the third strike, and how much damage will he do while we wait? One strike should have been enough to win a lifetime ban from any public office.
Posted by: D. L. Stephens | Friday, 03 October 2008 at 06:57 PM
Who will be next? Prescott? Blunkett? Alistair Campbell?
Posted by: Marcher Baron | Friday, 03 October 2008 at 09:23 PM
I have been wondering if Brown's also planning to bring back Michael Foot.
However, Foot didn't have to resign in disgrace (even once) so on these grounds it seems unlikely.
Posted by: Ben Elford | Saturday, 04 October 2008 at 12:12 AM
Minister for Business? Of course. Admirably qualified - never worked in business, industry or SME's, never met any businesses except the 'guacamole' fish and chip shop, disaster at the EU...... Business leaders are aghast, Brussels is relieved, we the voters are nonplussed and Gordon should re-read Julius Caesar 'he hath a lean and hungry look; put men about me who are fat.'
Posted by: john problem | Saturday, 04 October 2008 at 08:26 AM
Anyone now under 45 would benefit from a time-machine visit to the final days of Labour under Callaghan. Only thus would any of today’s younger voters and chatterers get to experience the full, dismal bathos of this country in its most depressing, screwed-up, banana-republic manifestation in living memory. Or you can wait another couple of years for full rewind, courtesy of the similarly bumbling, incompetent incumbents (abetted again by the stale re-recruits from the early days of New Labour rule, whose camouflaging inheritance of fiscal efficiency from the previous regime is now well and truly squandered).
Posted by: Rob dePlume | Saturday, 04 October 2008 at 10:23 AM
This move speaks volumes about the supposed integrity of Gordon Clown. Mandelson is one of the founding fathers of NuLabour and the man that taught Billy Liar the craft of unashamed mendacity.
Mandelson is an exposed serial liar; he did not resign willingly from Bliar's cabinet, he was pushed by a tide of opinion from a public that was sick to the back teeth of this brazenly self-serving confidence trickster.
Mandelson was parachuted into a EUromonster commissioner's job were he would be free to practice his craft without the inconvenience of democratic accountability. His bloated ego caused significant damage to our trade relations with many countries all over the globe by imposing protectionist policies that maintained the EU subsidy culture and disadvanted developing nations looking for a viable export market.
There can surely be no right-minded Briton that will welcome the return to Westminster of this disgraced individual. The silver lining to this cloud must surely be that Mandelson's presence will hasten the demise of NuLabour and everything that it stands for. If it doesn't, there is little hope for the future of this country.
Posted by: Keith Lonsdale | Saturday, 04 October 2008 at 01:25 PM
There is, though, a tradition in the Circus that right at the end of the season, everyone who's starred in the show appears in the final parade.
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Saturday, 04 October 2008 at 01:35 PM
Isn't it rich!
Don't bother, they're here.
Posted by: Rob dePlume | Saturday, 04 October 2008 at 02:44 PM
Mandy's back. If Gordo now can bring back Prescottie and Blunketty too, the dream team can finally be reunited.
It's probably too much to ever hope to bring back Blairy, given his lucrative deal with LA Dodgers.
Not so much a Beatles reunion of sorts, more a Spinners reunion.
*sod it, I'll be singing 'In My Liverpool Home' now for the rest of today*
Posted by: Robbie | Saturday, 04 October 2008 at 08:22 PM
Do you think Mandelson cares what the public think? He's a 'wheeler dealer' by nature. My belief is that a deal has been struck - Campbell, Blair are at the back of it......the idea to save Nulabor, certainly NOT the hapless Mr Brown....who, most likely, has been hoodwinked. Mandelson will have been brought into the Cabinet to knock dissenting heads together and his price for this service.....you guessed it.........a peerage!
Posted by: Shirley Bowen | Monday, 06 October 2008 at 12:32 AM
the truly awful thing about this man is how much he wants - and expects- to be wanted; in any other field of activity this would have all the alarm bells ringing in the recruitment office.
perhaps what we really need are many more reluctant politicians- those who have useful talents and have to be persuaded to offer them in public service?
Posted by: jaff | Monday, 06 October 2008 at 09:25 AM
Hi daddy!
Well i found this artical highly interesting, even though i didn't actually read it.
Hope your having a good day at work.
Lots of love Tamsin
xxxx
Posted by: Tamsin McSmith | Monday, 06 October 2008 at 10:52 AM